so here's the thing

i think i like harrow more than gideon. i definitely like reading from harrow's perspective more than gideon's. i also didn't mind the second person writing at all! also the fact that the main cast is roughly 6 people makes it a lot easier to keep track of everyone and lets each person really feel... like a person

well. half the time anyway.

THAT BEING SAID

something about this one i just really liked less than the first and it still had most of the problems from the first one. but this one really just undercuts SO much tension with the most asinine meme references that feel fully out of place. why are we quoting eminem?? defunct websites from the 2000s?? it's extremely jarring and really hurts the book

the author has a lot of really interesting and well thought out concepts and isn't a bad technical writer or character writer but.... someone needs to just take her keyboard away and go "ok..... no" some of the time

Spoiler

i think the pacing of the end was way off. so much happens so fast that it's really hard to keep track of what's going on. also the back to back weird lines like "back to reality oh there goes gravity" and "hi hungry, i'm dad" jokes (i know that last one is not what is said exactly but it's the same joke) really just ruins it. i was so frustrated!! also i TRULY did not remember most of the people from caanan house because of the "eight billion characters and we spend no time with any of them and gideon calls them 4 names each" problem so those sections were really confusing to me.

OH LORD I JUST REMEMBERED THE COFFEE SHOP AU SOMEONE TAKE *MY* KEYBOARD AWAY BEFORE I COMMIT A MURDER

lastly, before you think i think too highly of myself and my takes: i spent an entire book and a half thinking her name was harrowhawk